PUBLICATIONS

“Remember the Main” Book Signing Events

The Main Club
June 13, 4-7PM
Book reading and signing potluck.
1217 Tower Ave., Superior, WI
(715) 392-3335

Magers & Quinn Bookseller
June 16, 7PM
Book signing and meet the author.
3038 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, MN.
(612) 822-4611

Drury Lane Books
June 27, 1-3:30PM
Book-signing and meet the author
12 Wisconsin Street, Grand Marais, MN
(218) 387-3370

Splitrock Lighthouse
August 1, 1-3PM
Book-signing and meet the author
3713 Splitrock Lighthouse Road,
Two Harbors, MN
(218) 226-6372

Crow & Company Bookstore
August 2, 12PM
Book-signing and meet the author
1323 Broadway,
Superior, WI

Minnesota Historical Society
August 13, 6PM
Author Presentation
345 West Kellogg Blvd,
St. Paul, MN
(651) 259-3189
General Admission: $15
MHS Members: $12

Zenith Books
September 2, 7PM
Author Presentation
318 North Central Ave.,
Duluth, MN
(218) 606-1777

Remember the Main: The Gay Bar that Started a Movement in the Northland

Remember the Main tells the story of a generation who found their cause and their community at Jansen’s club. Their activism bridged the gap between the relatively closeted culture of the 1950s and the open advocacy of the 1990s and 2000s. Although the 1969 Stonewall riots are a well-known turning point in the fight for equality, Remember the Main draws attention to a less dramatic but significant, sustained regional effort. Weaving together oral history, biography, and social critique, Meg Gorzycki chronicles the highs and lows of the local fight for human rights, legal protection, and health care for LGBTQ Americans. Remember the Main is an engaging profile of a unique community and what its members did to improve lives through resilience, compassion, and belonging—with a few toasts along the way. The story is told through 30 interviews that leave readers with insights about how to carry on the good fight for compassion. Read with pride!

Minnesota Historical Society Press (2026) Paperback. 320 pp.

“Jansen’s “activision” had four specific priorities. The first priority was to create a safe, welcoming, and fun space. The second was to build a community, which meant not only facilitating introductions at the bar but developing the Main Club’s relationships with the larger community, including local government, non-profit agencies, universities, health care facilities, local businesses, and churches. The third was to encourage others to be politically active, which meant participating in city council meetings, political party caucuses, and campaigns for candidates. Jansen’s fourth priority was the connective tissue of all the others, and that was to help others physically, emotionally, and financially. To this end, he turned the Main Club into a headquarters for community engagement and often acted as a social worker with a liquor license.”

“Despite its social conservatism, the Northland economy created unique social situations that did not conform to the traditional order. And often these situations were understood and tolerated. The logging camps that brought men to clear the pine forests in the late 1800s permitted cross dressing and same-sex dalliances. Male comradery was perceived as a key component to survival and productivity. These behaviors, however, did not translate to general society nor form the basis of a movement for gay rights. The state’s anti-sodomy laws and social pressure for men to be husbands and fathers made clear that what happened in the woods must stay in the woods. Silence was code for survival.”

“By the end of July, Duluth Citizens for Decency Through Law, a Christian conservative organization led by businessman Robin Tellor, had 4,000 signatures, enough to put the ordinance to Duluth voters on the September 11th As the referendum neared in late August, proponents of the ordinance wanted state officials to offer their support, but in 1984, to do that was to risk one’s political career. Secretary of State Joan Growe (DFL), who was the beneficiary of fundraisers held at Jansen’s house, said she was not taking sides. State Treasurer Robert W. Mattson (DFL) sided with opponents of the measure as he felt it created special rights for a special class of people, while U.S. Senator Rudy Boschwitz (R-MN) declined to comment stating that he had not studied the ordinance.

In the weeks leading up to the vote, the DNT [Duluth News Tribune] received heaps of editorial letters regarding the ordinance, and church sermons offered passionate arguments for and against the measure. Editorials in the DNT represented a constellation of opinions that were at times shocking in their cruelty. They revealed the painful truth that many people knew nothing about LGBTQ people and felt no compunction about recycling mindless hysteria. Editorials also shined with the compassion and humanitarianism of clerics and lay persons who contested their adversary’s assertions that God “hated fags.” The editorials revealed a panic in the city that often short-circuited reason and ignored facts. Most of the editorials did not dwell on the Constitution or its principles, and were largely volleys of personal assumptions and beliefs.”

“Bob Jansen did not have a stake in religious or theological arguments about gay rights. He was a humanist who often used humor to neutralize inquiries about his spiritual perspectives. On occasion, when asked about his thoughts about the relationship between activism and faith, he replied that he was not so interested in that subject, and suggested that some insights might be gained in answering the question, “Where would Jesus drink?”

“Jansen’s response to HIV and AIDS went beyond the politics of formal organizations. He held fund-raisers such as drag shows and porn swaps to raise money for the Free Clinic. He often gave AIDS patients money out of his own pocket to have a normal evening out to the movies and dinner. He lamented that the impact of AIDS was especially tragic in the area because it was such a small community. “People died,” he said, “and you didn’t know why… We didn’t know if folks were in the hospital or who to tell.” The stigma of AIDS was so acute that on some occasions police officers permitted Jansen and a couple of his friends to go into the homes of the deceased to clean it up before family members arrived. This ensured that the family would not discover the deceased’s pornography or see that their loved ones were in possession of experimental drugs used for treating AIDS. Many victims of AIDS wanted to take their secrets to the grave and remain in the closet even after death. Jansen respected that.”

“The story of the Main Club is not a linear three-act play nor a fairy tale about a man and his merry band of allies who were always righteous, united, humble, sober, and victorious. The story is not about an oppressed people reaching the Promised Land, or a rainbow rabble who brought about the Age of Aquarius. It is about how particular individuals in a particular community, in a particular place, at a particular time responded to socially sanctioned discrimination, abuse, and violence. It is about how people met the challenge to claim their own dignity and rights. It is also the story of how a community’s courage and compassion was often more impactful than legislation. It is the story of how people realized that, at the shallow end of the lake, there was liberal lip service to support for LGBTQ rights, and at the deeper end of the lake, there were radical transformations of mindsets and attitudes. The story of the Main Club is one of thousands of gems that comprise the movement for human rights in Minnesota and the U.S., and among those gems are dazzling facets — the acts of individuals whose incandescent empathy and resolve to announce love on the disinherited were breathtaking.”

Study & Discussion Guide for Using Remember the Main in Courses and Religious Retreats

The Peace We Can’t Reach Confronting Narratives That Deny Our Conditions, Jam Our Spiritual Frequencies, and Defile Shalom

Propelled by George Floyd’s murder in her hometown of Minneapolis, Meg Gorzycki addresses the question of why peace is difficult to cultivate and sustain, and finds that America has always had a love-hate relationship with peace. The Peace We Can’t Reach posits that peace is more than the absence of war and aggression, and in its most profound sense is shalom, the commitment to live for the well-being of all so that compassion and justice might prevail. Exploring shalom from the perspective of war, police brutality, mass shootings, and economic injustice, this book offers evidence that neither democracy nor Christianity as Americans have known them are capable of achieving peace. It asserts that the keys to peace are personal and social narratives that give people a sense of identity and their highest purpose, and concludes that gaining control over these narratives is vital to shalom.

Wipf and Stock (2023). Paperback 270 pp.

“My beloved City of Lakes, with its beautiful parkways, theaters, arts, universities, medical centers, and history of progressive politics, became ground zero of another episode in America’s struggle with dignity and diversity. The fatal encounter between Floyd and Chauvin occurred in the Powderhorn neighborhood, which is one of several neighborhoods in the shallow south side of Minneapolis squeezed between I35W to the west and the Mississippi River to the east. The area was developed in the early 1900s to house White middle-class residents. As the 20th century closed, working class Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and emigrants from Somalia, India, and the Middle East settled in. At the time of George Floyd’s death, there were over 550 tents in Powderhorn Park. It was the largest encampment of homeless people in Minneapolis history. In 2016, Hennepin County, in which Minneapolis is located, documented over 4,000 homeless in its jurisdiction.At the time of Floyd’s death, about 19 percent (eight percent over the national rate) of Minneapolis’ residents lived in poverty.  Every data point has implications for peace.”

“As an ideology, peace is a limited concept because it so often regards only the physical prevalence of cooperation and nonaggression. Peace is much more. Often a word used to wish others peace, “shalom” represents harmony that goes beyond the state of cooperation and nonaggression. In the Hebrew tradition, shalom connotes tranquility, cooperation, safety, prosperity, wholeness, and well-being; it describes an attitude toward environmental and material conditions that are conducive to peace. Shalom is a principle vital to creating conditions that preserve and protect human dignity and all that is necessary for all people to live in a state of decency. It is the criteria against which the quality of all relationships, including those on an international scale, may be judged, so that rightness of intention and action is pursued. In shalom, peace rests on the willingness of individuals to go out of their way to see that nobody is disinherited. On the most basic level, shalom is concerned with preventing war, oppression, hunger, homelessness, and alienation.”

“Narratives are about peace everywhere, but they are not necessarily about shalom. The thirty-second ad for everything from cars to cosmetics, for example, tell us that our serenity lies in owning the right things and looking the right way. The protagonist of the ad might be a woman facing her wrinkled skin in the mirror. She ponders her fading youth and sees her appearance as an existential crisis. Her esteem is at last rescued by a miracle cream, and she can now be at peace in a world where people judge each other by their looks. The story is not merely about how we can look like we are twenty-five when we are actual seventy-three, it is about what we should care about; it is about the myth that serenity is always one purchase away.”

In Genesis we read about the brothers Cain and Able, and how Cain murdered Able in a fit of jealously and rage. Cain resented that God favored Able’s offering and did not favor his own. (Gen. 4:3–16). In theory, Cain had a grievance with God, but killing God was not an option. When God asked Cain about his brother, Cain replied, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain’s cheeky response suggests that he was not intimidated by God, nor ashamed of his horrible sin. Cain demonstrated no remorse for his actions or his malice. God punished Cain by turning the earth against him, so that his labor in the fields would not yield the original bounty God intended. He condemned Cain to a life of wandering, and to live in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

We too live in the land of Nod.

We are Cain. We are parents, school administrators, gun manufactures and retailers, elected officials, industrialists, utility companies, bankers, video game designers, bloggers, clerics, rioters, consumers, and police officers who frequently do not want to take responsibility for our own actions, values, and attitudes. The sanctity that binds us to our Creator and to each other is fragile, like the love Cain had for Able. Even in our families, where the young are ideally supposed to learn from the old about our causes higher than ourselves the dignity of life, and spirituality, there is often no real sense of sanctity or community. There are many homes in which individuals rattle around in the same space, yet are strangers to each other. There are many people who are strangers unto themselves.

We often metaphorically look God in the face, as did Cain, and say, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Then we have the audacity—the astonishing insolence—to expect that with this attitude towards the gift of life, peace will miraculously appear.”

Teaching for Apocalypse COVID-19’s Message to Educators and Those They Serve

If the coronavirus does not get us, our ignorance might. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed serious gaps in Americans’ education. Did education cause the outbreak? No. Did our assumptions, false narratives about the world, and our willingness to blindly accept whatever our partisan poohbahs said contribute to our woes? Perhaps. Could education be improved so we can better understand the world, nature, public health, economics, and our own government? Absolutely. During the pandemic, thousands of teachers flocked to the silicon sanctuary as shelter-in-place mandates forced schools and universities into the digital classroom. Instructors urgently wanted to know which boxes to click in their learning management systems. The “how to” literature proliferated, and much of it walked a fine line between reasonable adjustments and outright abdication of high standards of academic achievement and intellectual development. A case is made here that education was in trouble long before COVID-19 appeared, and that if we do not make substantial reforms in our schools and colleges–whether online or not–we will be at the mercy of our own ignorance, as the problems of the twenty-first century crash into our lives.

Wipf and Stock. Paperback 206 pp.

“The minute human behavior becomes a factor in any crisis, I think about the responsibility of people in my profession. I think about what is essential to know. I think about whether our own ignorance is inching us ever closer to apocalypse, and if so, are we obligated to do something about that?The overarching question driving this composition is: “Is it possible for schools, colleges, and universities in the United States to do a better job of educating the public, so that we are able to, and committed to reducing the likelihood of extinction, and the messes we have made that produce so much suffering, death, and destruction?”

“The claim that, “nothing like this has ever happened before” suggests either a remarkable lapse of memory or a wholly vacuous understanding of history, or both. Plagues are a fixture in human history. They ravaged civilization in antiquity, and in the Middle Ages reduced Europe’s population by at least a third. Small pox, tuberculosis, and cholera were constant threats to urban industrial communities in modern times. From 1918 to 1919, influenza swept around the world more than once to claim roughly 50 million lives. Did folks really forget about the AIDS pandemic, which killed nearly 700,000 people in the U.S. between its onset and 2016 and the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 that killed 675,000 Americans?”

“Scientific literacy is more than the ability to define things such as atoms, ecosystems, and taxonomies, and more than the memorization of certain formulas for solving problems in the chemistry or physics lab. It is also the ability to explain what is meant by the scientific method and to explain why exemplary research meticulously narrows research questions, selects sample from certain populations and not others, conducts double-blind experiments, is imaginative and broad thinking about variables impacting outcomes, and insists on numerous replications of studies before speaking with certainty about scientific truth. Scientific literacy also means understanding the relationship between research and public safety, and knowing when certain scientific inquiries ought to have greater priority than others and why.”

DOWNLOAD COVER REQUEST REVIEW COPY REQUEST EXAM COPY Dastardly Discourse Rescuing Rhetorical Capital from Indecency and Incivility

Screaming at the television, compulsively firing off tart little tweets, and blogging until we are blue; these signal that we are feeling the effects of dastardly discourse. We live in a world where people feel entitled to use words to hurt, exploit, and publicly degrade humanity. We daily consume rhetoric that makes a mockery of decency and civility. Leaders of key social institutions, including government, news media, and religious organizations, who are supposed to be role models of reasoned and compassionate communication are often the ones with the loudest lies and the hardest hate. We can change the channel. We can unplug. We can even encourage others to do the same. We may not do so, however, until we grasp what is fundamentally at risk in our current norms of communication. Nasty words are just the tip of the dastardly discourse iceberg. What lies beneath is a steady flow of propaganda that aims to control our personal narratives. This book is about that propaganda, the importance of owning our own narratives, and improving our own rhetorical capital–the ability to analyze and evaluate information–for the sake of sustaining human dignity, decency, and civility.

Wipf and Stock. 244 pp.

“What do Jesus of Nazareth, Jon Stewart, Howard Beale, and my mom have in common? Need a hint? OK, let’s explore who is who. Jesus of Nazareth was a Jewish teacher of spiritual wisdom who lived in Roman-occupied Palestine, ruled by Tiberius Caesar. His life and death have for millions of people become a source of moral guidance and salvation. Jon Stewart is an American comedian, writer, actor, and former host of the Daily Show on Comedy Central. His life and activism may have become a source of spiritual wisdom for some, but he is more widely known for his humor and commentary on the hypocrisy and irony of American politics and culture. Howard Beale is a fictional news anchorman who is a central character in the film, Network. Beale is the angry prophetic voice against television’s manipulation of public opinion who screams, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” He’s the guy who directs viewers to throw their TVs out the window. My mom is the woman who gave birth to me and my five siblings. She worships Jesus, chuckled at some of Jon Stewart’s sarcasm, and thought Beale was too crazy to watch.

Still cannot see the common thread? Alright, let’s try some quotations. Jesus said to his disciplines, “A man is not defiled by what enters his mouth, but by what comes out of it” (Matt. 15:11). In a discussion with CNN’s Tucker Carlson (host of Crossfire), Jon Stewart criticized CNN’s news programs for being too friendly to corporate interests. Stewart pleaded with Tucker, “Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America.” He continued, “You know… you have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.”  Howard Beale cried out to his audience:

Listen to me: Television is not the truth! Television is a God-damned amusement park! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, side-show freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We’re in the boredom-killing business! So if you want the truth… Go to God! Go to your gurus! Go to yourselves! Because that’s the only place you’re ever going to find any real truth.

My mom? Well, she warned her kids, “If you use that kind of language again, I’m going to wash your mouth out with soap!” And she did.

Each of these individuals is telling us that words matter. They are telling us that it is not right to cause pain and suffering with our stories and comments, and that it is wrong to lie. They are telling us that our words are used all too often to anesthetize our minds, and to distract us from what really matters. Jesus, Jon, Howard, and mom all understood that we can create a hell on Earth by what we say to each other, or we can create communities in which truth and benevolence prevail.”

“Critical pedagogy is not a magic bullet that will kill what ails us. What we want from the material world, and what we offer as justifications for those wants, however, could kill us.”

“The world is a scary place. Empires and the domains of strongmen provide cozy places to hide. The faithful, however, are not called to be cozy, but to roll up their sleeves and learn the way of God by loving others. The first generation of Christians had no nation, no police force, no army, no mercenaries, no senators, no lobbyists, and no judges. They were members of a “rogue” religious cult that was persecuted by Roman emperors, yet they ministered to the poor, the sick, and the suffering. Christianity did some of its best work without the government aid and the protection of the state.”

The ABCs of a Troubled Republic Musings on American Values

Weasels in the workplace, colleagues in crisis, and bombastic bosses–we all know what it is like to have a “job from hell.” We also know that, despite our industriousness and integrity, many of us will someday have to choose between groceries, health care, and heating the apartment. The nuns who taught me in grade school said that all work, regardless of skills or status, was a ministry. By our helpfulness and kindness on the job, we contributed to the common good. Oh, to have those nuns in charge today! Our sense of social responsibility is eroding as the gap between the super-rich and everyone else grows, and as the rhetoric of leaders that is supposed to heal, deepen our humanity, and unite us is mean, shallow, and divisive. What are the spiritual to do in this material world, where social Darwinism and faith in God are joined at the hip? This book is about putting spirituality to work at work. It is about using spirituality to help us be in toxic places and not become toxic. It explores strategies for maintaining our humanity and moral compass, and it illuminates choices, prompts deep personal reflection, and chases demons from cubicles with humor.

Wipf and Stock. Paperback 198 pp.

Here’s a little book, I keep beside my bed,
It helps me remember, What the Gospel said.
It might be quirky, A naughty little book;
But the way we are living, Needs a second look.

D Is for distractions,
We have quite a few,
Like texting and TV, And Internet too.
We’re buzzing and beeping And look for the thrill; Imagine the sanity,
If we could sit still!

J is for justice,
Elusive and thin,
When suspects are profiled By color of skin.
When poverty surges Our civility fails;
We demonize victims And fill up our jails.

P is for prayers,
We pray when it’s tough,
When working two jobs is still not enough.
Hail Mary health care
We’re down on our knees
So we don’t lose our homes
Paying hospital fees.

Weasels in the workplace, colleagues in crisis, and bombastic bosses–we all know what it is like to have a “job from hell.” We also know that, despite our industriousness and integrity, many of us will someday have to choose between groceries, health care, and heating the apartment. The nuns who taught me in grade school said that all work, regardless of skills or status, was a ministry. By our helpfulness and kindness on the job, we contributed to the common good. Oh, to have those nuns in charge today! Our sense of social responsibility is eroding as the gap between the super-rich and everyone else grows, and as the rhetoric of leaders that is supposed to heal, deepen our humanity, and unite us is mean, shallow, and divisive. What are the spiritual to do in this material world, where social Darwinism and faith in God are joined at the hip? This book is about putting spirituality to work at work. It is about using spirituality to help us be in toxic places and not become toxic. It explores strategies for maintaining our humanity and moral compass, and it illuminates choices, prompts deep personal reflection, and chases demons from cubicles with humor.

Wipf and Stock. Paperback 198 pp.

“It ain’t pretty being in your fifties,” Betty growled. The veteran accountant twisted the cinders at the end of her cigarette against an antique ashtray from a Las Vegas casino and complained:

‘You are at peak performance; you got your credentials; you have demonstrated your expertise, your leadership, and your willingness to make personal sacrifices for the good of the team, and what’ya get? You get a supervisor fresh out’a college who got the position by virtue of being a cheap hire who would be a yes man, and you got nowhere to run. I got twice as much energy as Mr. Twenty-Year-Old and I would like to find a job in another company at the level I have earned, and paid what I deserve. But, when you are in your fifties, nobody wants you. They think you are gonna need a respirator in the interview or retire in a week. They see you as a creature from the generation that wouldn’t die! And God forbid you should know more than the boss— cuz boy oh boy, people at the top get pissed off when people at the bottom know more than they do. I just wanna scream, “I was an expert at this when you were still learning how to add and subtract—what am I—chopped liver?”

“The new social and economic movements of the 16th and 17th centuries were tightly intertwined with new theologies. Protestant theologians no longer reflexively defended the idea that peasants were divinely bound to their landlords. John Calvin set off a moral revolution by preaching that accumulating wealth was not itself sinful, as long as one continually invested wealth in ways likely to bring about social well-being and goodness.  Whereas business was once regarded as a serious threat to the soul, Calvinism (Puritanism) reconciled piety and profit-making and so business was thus a sanctified enterprise.  Initially, Calvinism warned that the community would be destroyed if trade was the “Motive force for work,” rather than self-sufficiency.   It also preached that enterprise undertaken for the sole purpose of aggrandizing the individual rather than the community as a whole was sinful, but both these notions lost their luster as the American republic evolved.”

“Engaging our prophetic voices is risky. Sometimes individuals who bring their spirituality to bear on their work lose their jobs, their reputations, esteem in high places, their friends and family, and sometimes, they even lose their lives. As society teaches us which causes are worthy of sacrifice and which are not, the prophetic individual is also one who critiques the worthiness of causes against spiritual principles held in conscience rather than against popular sentiment and politically correct agendas.

What follows is a discussion about three individuals, Karen Silkwood, Bennett Omalu, and Roy Bourgeois, who all took the prophetic path as they spoke truth to power. None of these individuals began their careers with the intention of becoming famous or revolutionary. Their stories are remarkable because they illustrate the power of awareness and the profundity of incremental growth in the courage to speak truth. They are extraordinary inasmuch as they exemplify how everyday decisions bring the love of God to bear on the world.”

Caesar Ate My Jesus A Baby Boomer’s Reflection on Spirituality in the American Empire

What the hell happened on the way to making the world a better place? We boomers were told our success would be unlimited. We had democracy and capitalism, and God was on our side. We took our religious teachings seriously, and set out to end bigotry, violence, and destitution. Inevitably, we collided with American Caesars, whose power and wealth was sufficient to dominate national and international affairs. Political and religious Caesars appropriated Jesus and used him to justify war, sexism, racism, dictatorships, and poverty. What were the faithful to do? Lots of boomers I know tossed the spiritual baby out with the religious institution’s bathwater, and became cynical about civic engagement. It is not time to abandon hope in our goodness, however, and it is not time to surrender our conscience to Caesar. Our experiences as boomers teach us that it is possible to bring the love of God to bear in our lives, despite Caesar’s constant pressure to cherish power, wealth, celebrity, and things more than we cherish people. This book is for folks who are ready to get off Caesar’s treadmill and dig deeply into their hearts and minds to see what remains of the Kingdom of God within.

Wipf and Stock. Paperback 304 pp.

“In this book, Caesar represents people and institutions who have the power to determine laws, policies, and the distribution of rights, resources, and information. Caesar is not neutral; he operates for the benefit of himself and his associates. Caesar is the personification of imperialism in the material sense, and the colonization of conscience in the psychological and spiritual sense. Caesar always casts himself in a positive light. His agenda may be to fortify national security, expand the economy, bring democracy to the oppressed, or ‘make America great again.’ Caesar may use the rhetoric of a pastoral and pious figure, but his actions often betray his empathy for others.”

“To bring the Kingdom of God to bear on Earth in its most spiritual sense in 1950 would have been unpatriotic. Nationalism during the Cold War and beyond made it very difficult for the average citizen to have empathy for our enemies and mercy for the masses that were placed in the crossfire of America’s cold war crusades. To activate the deepest spirituality at the heart of Jesus’ teachings would have required Caesar to be humbled by powers greater than himself. Caesar and his people were not capable of that in 1950 and we may never be capable of that as a nation.”

Civil rights was a cause that could end political careers. In 1960, presidential candidate JFK walked a fine line on civil rights. He publicly supported civil rights to gain minority and liberal support, but tread cautiously on the matter of legislation as he needed Southern votes. Kennedy had supported the 1957 Civil rights Act which called for a commission to study civil rights violations and advance voting rights. LBJ, as Senate Majority Leader, saw that as a problem for Democrats itching to secure the presidency in 1960. Having little love for what he called the “nigger bill,” LBJ engineered a compromise. The section that authorized federal enforcement was gutted before the final vote. Johnson saw the issue of civil rights as a matter of patronage rather thanas one of justice. In a discussion over the bill, he said that, “These Negroes are getting pretty uppity these days, and that’s a problem for us, since they’ve got something they never had before: the political pull to back up their uppityness.”

“Boomers not only witnessed the erosion of regulation and tax laws that enabled their parents and grandparents to weather financial storms and scarcity, they were often engineers of economic crises that included the Recession of 2008. Since the 1970s, the healthy and robust middle class that existed in boomer’s youth has taken a beating. As the middle and working classes lost wealth, the top 1 percent of the top 1 present, who earn $350,000.00 or more a year, have made gains… In 2012 the wealthiest 160,000 families in America possessed as much wealth as did the poorest 145 million families. Real family income growth between 1947 and 1979 was very different from real income growth between 1979 and 2003. Between 1947 and 1979, the lowest four quintiles of family income I the US increased by over 100 percent, the fifth quintile by 99 percent, and the top 1 percent increased by 86 percent. Between 1979 and 2003, the real income growth for the lowest quintile was minus 2 percent, while gains between 8 and 5 percent were achieved by the next four quintiles, and the top 1 percent increased by 75 percent.”

Going off the grid is not small matter. We regularly do not know we are out of touch with our inner selves. This is true in part because we are distracted, or in part because we are in denial of our spiritual pain, and in part because we are driven to get things done and have lots of ways of compensating for fatigue, depression, and pain. We are often unaware of our own stress and unhappiness and move mindlessly through our daily chores. People who are glued to the grid have often stopped listening to inner voices. Some are afraid that if they get off the grid, they will not know how to deal with pain and anxiety. This places them at risk for becoming reactionary and reckless without even knowing it. It also makes them vulnerable to living a life that is far from authentic because they have allowed others to write their life’s script.”

The Enlightened Classroom

The Enlightened Classroom addresses the need to improve formal instruction in critical thinking at all levels of instruction. The discussion provides insights to the historical and contemporary obstacles to this practice and discusses the political and personal agendas that help and hinder the advancement of critical thinking in the classroom and in the general operations of program development. The text conceptualizes critical thinking in the context of a democratic society and places the principles of the Enlightenment and global considerations at the center of problem-solving.

Figuroa Press. Paperback 475 pp.

“When studying history, then, it is essential to be aware of the role that sociocentric thought might play in the thinking of any historian.”

In sum, thinking about history=y is often problematic because:

  • Many educators, students and parents have no experience with history as a means of thinking critically about the human condition and the choices people face as consumers, citizens, and global neighbors.
  • Instructors frequently do not help students understand that historical narratives result from editorial choices and editorial choices are subject to personal biases.
Historical Thinking: Bringing critical thinking explicitly into the heart of historical study

This guide is designed principally for instructors. It is also useful for those interested in a serious study of history. It presents history as a mode of thinking rather than a list of disconnected dates and names and places. We recommend that it be used in conjunction with the student Understanding Critical Thinking as the Key to Historical Thinking. Both guides are based on the idea that history, like all subjects, must be understood in terms of the reasoning that is embedded in it. In other words, these guides begin with the premise that all historians ask historical questions, formulate historical purposes, begin with historical assumptions, develop historical concepts and theories, reason from historical perspectives, and think through historical implications.

Foundation for Critical Thinking. Paperback 94 pp.

“This guide is designed principally for instructors. It is also useful for those interested in a serious study of history. It presents history as a mode of thinking rather than a list of disconnected dates and names and places…. [These guides] begin with the premise that all historians ask historical questions, formulate historical purposes, gather historical information, make historical inferences, begin with historical assumptions, develop historical concepts, and theories, reason from historical perspectives, and think through historical implications.”

“History textbooks often comprise the largest source of information and exercises in history courses at the elementary and secondary levels. The content of tests, therefore, is of special concern and has found itself at the center of what some scholars and politicians have called a religious and cultural war over the soul of America’s identity. A “culture war” is essentially a contest of what society should value and believe; it is a conflict over what should be law, what shall constitute public education, what will be tolerated in mass media, what aims shall drive foreign and domestic policies, and which perspectives will become the institutional memories of a society’s history.”

“The purpose of the Document Detective exercise is to improve students’ reading comprehension and critical thinking through content analysis targeting an author’s assumptions, perspective, and use of information, as well as important implications of the author’s assertions. Students will also deepen their understanding of concepts and how these concepts influence our understanding of history.”

Articles in Scholarly Journals

Desa, Geoffrey, Pamela J. Howard, Meg Gorzycki, and Diane D. Allen. “Essential but Invisible: Collegiate Academic Reading Explored from the Faculty Perspective.” College Teaching 68, no. 3 (2020): 126-137. Essential but Invisible: Collegiate Academic Reading Explored from the Faculty Perspective: College Teaching: Vol 68, No 3

Data gathered from a state university on the West Coast revealed that instructors believe that reading is an important element in undergraduate studies but they do not believe it is their job to teach students who struggle with reading at the college level. Instructors express frustration over how to teach students who do not read. The data imply that there is little effort in tertiary education that aims to develop cognition and epistemological thinking through the use of critical reading.

Gorzycki, Meg, Geoffrey Desa, Pamela J. Howard, and Diane D. Allen. ““Reading is Important,” but “I Don’t read”: Undergraduates’ Experiences with Academic Reading.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 63, no. 5 (2020): 499-508. “Reading Is Important,” but “I Don’t Read” on JSTOR

A study of 848 undergraduates at a state university on the West Coast found that students were divided on the questions of whether the best time for learning reading skills was before college and that reading is essential for getting good grades. Most students reported that they had strong reading skills and reading assignments are ineffective. Student comments underscored the paradox that while students believe reading is important to developing a masterful understanding of the subject ad critical thinking skills, they believe that reading instruction should not be taught and that when instructors have good teaching kills, reading is not necessary.

Howard, Pamela J., Meg Gorzycki, Geoffrey Desa, and Diane D. Allen. “Academic Reading: Comparing Students’ and Faculty Perceptions of its Value, Practice, and Pedagogy.” Journal of College Reading and Learning 48, no. 3 (2018): 189-209. Academic Reading: Comparing Students’ and Faculty Perceptions of Its Value, Practice, and Pedagogy: Journal of College Reading and Learning: Vol 48, No 3

Data from surveys of students and faculty reveal that undergraduates and faculty have significantly different opinions about students’ reading proficiency whereby students rate their reading proficiency higher than do instructors. The survey also suggested that students and faculty have an unspoken agreement that if instructors do not require much reading or assign dense academic readings, the students will be more likely to award instructors high marks on evaluations that are considered in promotions and tenure.

Gorzycki, Meg, Pamela Howard, Diane Allen, Geoffrey Desa, and Erik Rosegard. “An Exploration of Academic Reading Proficiency at the University Level: A Cross-Sectional Study of 848 Undergraduates.” Literacy Research and Instruction 55, no. 2 (2016): 142-162. An Exploration of Academic Reading Proficiency at the University Level: A Cross-Sectional Study of 848 Undergraduates: Literacy Research and Instruction: Vol 55, No 2

Undergraduates were given a reading test that followed the standard design of the SAT and that was scored at the 11th grade reading level. The test contained ten questions about the main ideas, vocabulary, implications, and comparing and contrasting. The average score on the test was 60 percent and 13 percent scored three correct answers or less. The study suggested that many undergrads are struggling to rea at the college level. The study also raised questions for further inquiry as about 75 percent of those who took the reading test were juniors, seniors, and super-seniors, many of whom were successful in their college studies despite failure to be successful with an 11th grade reading test.

Shea, Jennifer, M. Ernita Joaquin, and Meg Gorzycki. “Hybrid Course Design: Promoting Student Engagement and Success.” Journal of Public Affairs Education 21, no. 4 (2015): 539-556. Hybrid Course Design: Promoting Student Engagement and Success on JSTOR

This investigation conformed that student success in hybrid courses where the class meets in a face-to-face venue part-time and works remoting online part-time is predicated on the strength of the instructor’s presence, substantial lesson planning, and abundant use of hands-on learning activities.

Gorzycki, Meg, Diane Allen, and Pamela Howard. “Assessing Ethical Thinking as a Cognitive Task: A Reliable Rubric.” Currents in Teaching & Learning 6, no. 1 (2013). Assessing Ethical Thinking as a Cognitive Task: A Reliable Rubric. | EBSCOhost

The challenge of assessing ethical thinking is challenged by the reality that what is considered ethical is often regarded as a matter of subjective opinion. When the cognitive aspects of ethical thinking are viewed apart from the actual judgement of the thinker, the quality of the individual’s reasoning and reflection and analysis of the issues comes into focus. The cognitive tasks of ethical thinking include: the scope of perspectives considered, the biases contained in information used to make the ethical decision, and the individua’s ability to identify the relevance, accuracy, assumptions, and implications of ideas and assertions that are germane to the ethical decision.